The Glasgow date of ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ tour has been changed.
The original date of 20th April has been rescheduled for 12th October.
Toyah tweeted today that further details regarding this are to be announced officially tomorrow.
DJ Phil Marriott announced today that he will be interviewing Toyah later this week.
There’s no confirmation as yet where or when the interview will air but it will possibly be on Phil’s ‘Gaydar Radio’ show.
The show airs from 6-10pm each weeknight on the station and can be listened to, at their website, here.
The latest painting of Toyah by artist Mark Satchwill.
Based on ‘The Changeling’ imagery and the song lyrics on the album, it’s a beautiful tribute in this 30th anniversary year.
It’s a digital work, painted in ArtRage and would be around 16 x 20 inches on canvas.
Mark has previously created ‘Four From Toyah’ and ‘The Blue Meaning’ Toyah art.
Please click on the photo to view a larger version and thanks to Mark for this. (Painting © Mark Satchwill)
• Visit ‘Mark Satchwill Art’, to view more of Mark’s work, here.
The first “Album Of The Month” and it has to be ‘Prostitute’. Not only for being a great album but also for including the song that this new Toyah Newsletter takes its name from.
Released in 1988, I think this album shocked every Toyah fan at the time. It was the successor to ‘Desire’ and couldn’t have been more different but also that title. Tame by today’s standards maybe, but in 1988 it was still a word that Toyah couldn’t even say when she guested on TVAM.
‘Prostitute’ is definitely Toyah’s most experimental album to date, and her least commercial. Using all manner of samples and noises to create a weird, yet addictively interesting, soundscape. It’s minimalist and raw and has Toyah sounding quite like Kate Bush in parts, Laurie Anderson in others. There’s an abundance of spoken and whispered vocals and Toyah’s unmistakable laugh and in comparison to its two predecessors; ‘Desire’ and ‘Minx’ is almost a return to the brashness of Toyah’s early Safari albums. Go on, give ‘Prostitute’ another listen… View more here.
One of Toyah’s most famous theatre plays, Trafford Tanzi by Claire Luckham, is back… At the Empire Theatre, Blackburn at the end of this month in a production by Blackburn College Performing Arts Department and they even mention Toyah in their promotion for their play.
“You are invited to cheer and boo the characters as though you were present at an actual wrestling match.
Toyah Willcox was famous for her fantastic characterisation of Tanzi. This is a superb play you would be crazy to miss.”
The 18-31 March 1982 issue of ‘Smash Hits’ has just been added to the excellent ‘Like Punk Never Happened – Smash Hits Archive‘.
This issue features a plethora of various Toyah content, including:
Free huge poster (Toyah on one side, The Human League on the other), photo from the ‘Rock & Pop Awards 1982’, a full-page advert for the VHS release of Urgh! A Music War, and Toyah as a toddler on a donkey in the ‘From The Cots’ photo feature.
View scans of the full issue, and every previous issue of ‘Smash Hits’, here.
Toyah has been tweeting, over the last few days, about The Humans.
Bill Rieflin has recently arrived in the UK, and inbetween writing songs for The Humans’ third album (referred to as Humans 3 by Toyah) a number of practical jokes have been played on Bill. Most consisting of various objects being placed on his bed.
So far the tally is: A whole pineapple, followed by a hoover, then it was Willyfred the rabbit and a roll of gaffer tape. Bill also had two tangerines and a banana put in his shoes :)
Toyah also tweeted on 16th March: “Humans wrote 5 great song ideas y”day. We are on a roll.” and today: “The Humans have written 17 ideas in three days! Just going over them with fine tooth comb.”
From ‘Sugar Rush: The Humans Fan Page’: Bill Rieflin has co-produced the single “Crush Vaccine” by Atomic Bride, a band from Seattle, with a new album out 23rd May called “Dead Air”.
• Visit ‘The Humans Official’ here, and the ‘Sugar Rush’ fansite here.
The ‘Fade2Grey’ website has just added a mini-feature on the band Blood Donor, focusing on their single releases.
There is, of course, mention of Toyah. Blood Donor were also on Safari Records and the band’s keyboard player Keith Hale wrote ‘It’s A Mystery’.
The ‘Cult Queens’ blog, “Psychotronic Eye Candy!”, featured Toyah, in Devil Queen mode, this week. Quite right.
There’s a brief Q&A with Norwegian musician Haakon Rian Ueland at ‘Fandalism’. He mentions Toyah..
Who was your biggest musical influence growing up?
Toyah. What an amazing artist!
A variety of publications, including the ‘Times & Star’, report on Toyah headlining the Workington ‘Decades’ Festival.
80s PUNK STAR TOYAH WILLCOX WILL HEADLINE WORKINGTON FESTIVAL
Singing star Toyah Wilcox will headline Workington’s Decades town centre music festival later this year.
The 1980s self-styled punk princess, best known for chart hit It’s A Mystery, will perform at the event between May 25 and 27.
Toyah’s career spans 30 years and she has had 13 top 40 singles, recorded 20 albums, presented TV programmes and appeared on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here! She recently starred in the West End rock show Vampires Rock.
The Decades festival will be based around 12 pubs and clubs on the town centre “circuit” and will celebrate music from the 1960s to the 1990s. Set up by Paul McGee, landlord of the Red House, and run by Maryport Festivals Limited, it promises a weekend of musical nostalgia.
• Read the full report, at the ‘Times & Star’ website, here.
The seriously good ‘Gods & Alcoves’ blog recently added a link to the 1980 magazine ‘Punk’s Not Dead!’. It features a Toyah pin-up from the (in)famous 1979 Simon Fowler photo shoot.
Punk’s Not Dead! magazine – edition one available online
Following hot on the heels of all 11 editions of “Punk! Lives” being available online, I found another punk magazine – Punk’s Not Dead! – (1980) available online via Scribd. Obviously the exclamation mark is critical in the naming of any Punk! publication.
Although it is focussed on Punk (duh) it has interviews/photos of Killing Joke, Theatre of Hate and Toyah – worth a look! According to one blog…
View the ‘Gods & Alcoves’ post here. View the scanned ‘Punk’s Not Dead!’ magazine here.
It’s now less than a month until the first ‘Changeling Resurrection’ gig takes place. The opening night is at Brighton’s Concorde 2 on Saturday 14th April. Further details on the tour are available at ‘The Official Toyah Gigs’ page here.
An aftershow party is also being arranged in Brighton. View more info on this at its Facebook Events page here.
The full dates are:
Saturday 14th April: Concorde 2, Brighton
Wednesday 18th April: The Tunnels, Bristol
Friday 20th April: Classic Grand, Glasgow
Sunday 22nd April: Bush Hall, London
Saturday 28th April: Robin 2, Wolverhampton
Monday 30th April: Ruby Lounge, Manchester
Saturday 5th May: Arts Complex, Bishop’s Stortford
Toyah fan, and friend of Dreamscape (and now Falling To Earth:)) Sharon Dickson, was featured in an article in the ‘Dundee Evening Telegraph’ on Tuesday 13th March.
Sharon Is The Spitting Image Of Pop Singer
From punk princess to accomplished actress, Toyah Willcox has become one of Britain’s top icons.
But fans have been forced to look twice when they’ve clocked eyes on Toyah’s double in and around Dundee.
Debenhams worker Sharon Dickson (41) is the spitting image of the popular entertainer. Sharon is more than happy being the star’s doppleganger… as she’s a massive Toyah fan.
“I’m a huge Toyah fan. I go to watch her perform every year and I’m excited about seeing her in Glasgow next month when she plays at Classic Grand.”
Sharon decided to send the Tele her photograph after her mum saw our story on Coronation Street star Sophie Webster’s lookalike. Sharon, who works in Debenhams’ perfume department, said: “My mum saw the paper and suggested I get in contact for a laugh. I’ve never intentionally tried to look like Toyah.”
• Click on the scan to view a larger version of the article. (Thanks to Sharon)
The full 12-song soundtrack to Toyah’s My Vintage. The programme is currently airing on ‘Vintage TV’.
Click on each of the songs below to read in detail what Toyah said about each of her song choices. More soon!
Love Is The Drug – Roxy Music
The Jean Genie – David Bowie
The Killing Moon – Echo & The Bunnymen
Tiny Dancer – Elton John
The Passenger – Iggy Pop
All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
Running Up That Hill – Kate Bush
Walk On The Wild Side – Lou Reed
Stay – Shakespears Sister
Mad World – Tears For Fears
Even Better Than The Real Thing – U2
The Lovecats – The Cure
This will possibly be a regular feature on ‘Falling To Earth’. Collecting together key images from a specific Toyah “era”. Starting us off… Various Toyah photos from the ‘Sheep Farming in Barnet’ days.
Toyah’s first six song choices from My Vintage… View full transcripts of what she said about each by clicking on the song links above.
Toyah guested on Vintage TV’s My Vintage on Tuesday 13th March in a 90 minute special.
Toyah was a rebellious child, but the arrival of rock ‘n roll reinvented her life and gave her grounding. Here she shares with us her most-loved songs: those that brought her back to where she is today.
Toyah chose an eclectic selection of her favourite songs (see above for the full list) and recalled why they had become so.
Toyah’s official website will be offering visitors exclusive live tracks each month as Toyah’s Changeling Tour and summer festival/concert dates approach. At the beginning of each month an exclusive live track recorded from Toyah’s extensive 2011 tour dates will feature on the Gigs page.
The live tracks will be available to listen to for a limited time only with a new track replacing it each month. These live tracks are a taster for a special live album release planned for digital release in autumn/winter of 2012.
• Listen to the first, ‘Latex Messiah’, live at Manchester Academy, here.
‘Vintage TV’ ran a competition at their website during March to win tickets to see Toyah’s ‘The Changeling Resurrection 2012’.
THE CHANGELING RESURRECTION – TOYAH WILLCOX TOUR!
Cult figure, household name and music legend, Toyah Willcox, is touring the UK in April with The Changeling Resurrection Tour.
Known for her exuberant, energetic live shows, filled with colour, drama and classic songs, Toyah’s highly individual visual style was a forerunner of Lady GaGa and, musically, Florence & The Machine have recently been cited as “this generation’s Toyah” (BBC Radio 6).
Vintage TV viewers are being given the chance to win a pair of tickets to any one of her six tour performances, a fantastic prize worth more than £40.
To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the question on our Competitons page. Last entries will be accepted on Friday 30th March. Winners will be announced during the week beginning 2nd April.
The charity Doctor Who book, ‘Behind The Sofa’, in which Toyah contributes a memory, will go ahead after all.
‘Radio Times’ reported in early March:
Doctor Who charity book threatened by PayPal dispute: Behind the Sofa may not be published after payments frozen
Behind the Sofa, a limited-edition charity book full of celebrities’ reminiscences about Doctor Who, may not now be published following the decision of online payments service PayPal to freeze the account of the project’s organiser.
All profits from the 200-page book were to be given to Alzheimer’s Research UK. But payments for pre-orders – which were to be used by editor Steve Berry to fund the manufacture and distribution of the book – have today been frozen by PayPal.
PayPal had been taking payments directly by credit and debit card, as well as from customers with PayPal accounts. Berry may now have to fund the book himself.
The book was to feature contributions from, among many others: Paul Whitehouse, Michael Grade, Rufus Hound, Stephen Merchant, Charlie Brooker, Hugh Bonneville, Al Murray, Bill Oddie, Chris Chibnall, Jeremy Dyson, Jonathan Ross, Josie Long, Terrance Dicks, Martina Cole, Mitch Benn, Neil Gaiman, Nicholas Parsons, Paul Cornell, Toyah Willcox and Tracy Ann Oberman.
• Read the full article, at the ‘Radio Times’ website, here.
